Caruana wins Reykjavik 2012, Hou misses big chance

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3/13/2012 – We came this close to a major sensation. 18-year-old Hou Yifan, the reigning women's world champion, had a winning position against the tournament leader Fabiano Caruana, and would have finished the tournament in first place if she had steered the game to victory. But Fabiano has some special guardian angels and escaped with a draw and finished in sole first place himself. Final report.

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The The N1 Reykjavik Open 2012 is being held from March 6 to March 13, 2012, in Harpa, Reykjavik's spectacular new music hall on the harbour, just five minutes walk to downtown Reykjavik. The event is a nine-round Swiss, with top players including Fabiano Caruana, David Navara, Ivan Cheparinov, Ivan Sokolov, Hou Yifan, Robert Hess, Gawain Jones, Yuriy Kuzubov, Erwin l'Ami, and many others. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment from move one. Prizes are € 5,000 for the winner, € 2,000 for second place, € 1,250 for 3rd, etc., with a total of € 15,000.

Fabiano Caruana wins Reykjavik 2012

Before the final (ninth) round Italian GM Fabiano Caruana led the field by half a point. Behind him four GMs trying to catch him: Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands, David Navara of the Czech Republic, Israeli Boris Avrukh and reigning women's world champion Hou Yifan. In the final round Sokolov drew Avruhk, and Navara drew his black game against Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov. So the game Hou Yifan vs Fabiano Caruana would decide it all. This is how it went:

[Event "Reykjavik Open 2012"] [Site "Reykjavik/Iceland"] [Date "2012.03.13"] [Round "9"] [White "Hou, Yifan"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C78"] [WhiteElo "2639"] [BlackElo "2767"] [PlyCount "94"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. c3 d6 8. d4 Bb6 9. h3 O-O 10. Be3 h6 11. Nbd2 Re8 12. Re1 {0.16/0} Bd7 {0.12/0} 13. Qb1 { 0.00/0} Na5 {0.00/0} 14. Bc2 {-0.10/0} c5 {0.00/0} 15. d5 {0.00/0} c4 {0.00/0} 16. b4 {0.00/0} cxb3 {0.04/0} 17. axb3 {0.20/0} Bxe3 {0.03/0} 18. Rxe3 {0.32/0} Nb7 {0.32/0} 19. b4 {0.12/0} Nh5 {0.28/0} 20. Bd3 {0.22/0} Nf4 {0.40/0} 21. Bf1 {0.56/0} Rf8 {0.35/0} 22. c4 {0.43/0} bxc4 {0.32/0} 23. Bxc4 {0.28/0} a5 {0.48/ 0} 24. bxa5 {0.52/0} Nxa5 {0.17/0} 25. Qb4 {0.13/0} Nxc4 {0.48/0} 26. Rxa8 {0. 44/0} Qxa8 {0.78/0} 27. Nxc4 {0.33/0} Qa1+ {0.29/0} 28. Re1 {0.13/0} Qa2 {0.21/ 0} 29. Nfd2 {0.17/0} Rc8 $1 {0.10/0} 30. Re3 {0.00/0} Qc2 {0.00/0} 31. Kh2 {0. 00/0 As you can see from our Let's Check evaluation graph on the left the position has been essentially a draw for some time now.} Nd3 $2 {2.48/0} ( 31... Qd1 32. Qb3 Qa1 {etc. would have stayed within the drawing margin.}) 32. Qb7 $18 {2.29/0} Nc5 {2.44/0} 33. Qb6 {2.63/0} Nd3 {2.79/0} 34. Nxd6 {2.16/0} Rf8 {2.68/0} 35. N6c4 {2.26/0} (35. N2c4 {Moving the other knight to c4 was the better option.}) 35... Nxf2 {1.93/0} 36. Qb1 {1.13/0} Qxb1 {1.36/0} 37. Nxb1 {0.95/0} Bb5 {1.85/0} 38. Nba3 {1.41/0} Ba6 {1.27/0} 39. Nxe5 {1.51/0} Re8 {1.46/0} 40. d6 {1.40/0} Bb7 {1.56/0 White is still winning, but now throws it away immediately after the time control.} 41. Nxf7 $2 {0.04/0} (41. Nac4 Nxe4 42. d7 Rd8 43. Na5 Bd5 44. Rd3 Nf6 45. Rxd5 Nxd5 46. Nb7 {was one way of converting the advantage to victory.}) 41... Kxf7 $11 {0.07/0 The plan doesn't work, the young women's world champion has simply dropped half a point.} 42. Rf3+ {0.06/0} Ke6 {0.07/0} 43. Nb5 {0.06/0} Rb8 $1 {0.04/0} 44. Rxf2 {0.00/0} Bxe4 {0.03/0} 45. Re2 {0.00/0} Rxb5 {0.00/0} 46. Rxe4+ {0.00/0} Kxd6 47. Kg3 Kd5 1/2-1/2

This draw left Fabiano Caruana (above) with 7.5/9 points and an unchallenged first place. Seven players were half a point behind the American born Italian, among them the unlucky Hou Yifan. Three players, Caruana, Sokolov and Hou did not lose any games, and all three displayed a performance above 2700.

Second: Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov, of Bulgarian/Bosnia extraction

In third place: Czech GM David Navara lost one game (to Sokolov)

Hou Yifan (above) gained a number of rating points and now stands at 2646 on ChessPro's live rating list of women. That is easily the second highest rating ever achieved by a female player – the extraordinary Judit Polgar is still 63 points ahead of the Chinese super-talent (who is 55 points ahead of her nearest rival, Anna Muzychuk).

Top final standings (after nine rounds)

Rk.	Title	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Perf.
1	GM	Caruana Fabiano	ITA	2767	7.5	56.0	44.0	45.50	2777
2	GM	Sokolov Ivan	NED	2653	7.0	56.0	43.5	42.25	2744
3	GM	Navara David	CZE	2700	7.0	55.5	44.0	42.00	2709
4	GM	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2635	7.0	53.0	41.0	39.00	2697
5	GM	Avrukh Boris	ISR	2591	7.0	51.5	42.0	37.75	2667
6	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2639	7.0	51.5	40.0	39.75	2677
7	GM	Maze Sebastien	FRA	2577	7.0	50.0	39.5	38.50	2569
8	GM	Danielsen Henrik	ISL	2504	7.0	48.5	38.0	38.00	2574
9	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	BUL	2664	6.5	56.0	44.5	38.00	2695
10	GM	Hess Robert L	USA	2635	6.5	53.5	42.0	36.50	2638
11	GM	L'ami Erwin	NED	2611	6.5	52.0	40.0	36.00	2543
12	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	UKR	2666	6.5	51.5	40.0	36.25	2594
13	GM	Stefansson Hannes	ISL	2531	6.5	50.0	39.0	34.25	2541
14	GM	Papin Vasily	RUS	2575	6.5	49.5	39.5	35.00	2489
15	GM	Baklan Vladimir	UKR	2612	6.5	49.5	38.0	34.00	2578
16	GM	Kveinys Aloyzas	LTU	2512	6.5	49.0	38.5	34.50	2474
17	GM	Steingrimsson Hedinn	ISL	2556	6.5	48.5	37.5	33.75	2497
18	GM	Halkias Stelios	GRE	2588	6.5	48.5	37.5	33.50	2494
19	IM	Akshayraj Kore	IND	2422	6.0	52.5	42.5	32.00	2563
20	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	UKR	2615	6.0	52.5	41.5	34.00	2543
21	IM	Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn	ISL	2460	6.0	49.5	39.0	29.75	2513
	FM	Moen Andreas	NOR	2360	6.0	49.5	39.0	29.75	2431
23	GM	Ipatov Alexander	TUR	2561	6.0	49.0	39.5	30.25	2484
24	WGM	L'ami Alina	ROU	2372	6.0	49.0	37.5	30.00	2414
25	GM	Williams Simon K	ENG	2506	6.0	48.0	37.0	28.75	2462
26	IM	Kristiansen Jens	DEN	2432	6.0	47.0	36.5	30.00	2403
27	IM	Krush Irina	USA	2461	6.0	47.0	35.5	28.50	2457
28	GM	Libiszewski Fabien	FRA	2523	6.0	46.5	36.5	30.00	2406
29	IM	Ziska Helgi Dam	FAI	2456	6.0	46.5	35.5	29.00	2431
30	FM	Sigfusson Sigurdur	ISL	2346	6.0	46.0	34.5	27.75	2378
31	IM	Arnold Marc T	USA	2502	6.0	45.5	35.0	29.00	2414
32	FM	Kiewra Keaton F	USA	2355	6.0	44.5	34.5	28.25	2353
33	GM	Shulman Yuri	USA	2594	6.0	43.5	34.5	27.25	2317
34	FM	Thompson Ian D	ENG	2255	6.0	41.5	32.0	23.50	2273

Full standings of all 150 players

Links

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